It was, but they were far from allies. They muscled on their patrons as often as the cops did to drag more cash out of them, because they knew they had a blackmailable secret and they couldn’t go to the cops.
Yeah, the mob is extremely patriarchal and very very misogynist and queerphobic. Has been for ages, the Italian mob is typically extremely traditionalist Catholic. So the fact that this guy put his hand on his son’s back and said, “Yeah, he dresses like a woman for fun, and he’s good at it. And if any of you make him miserable about it, they’ll never find your body.” is a massive shock.
Cool echo of history given the maffia/mob ran many of the bars where queer people were welcome when things like cross dressing was criminalized
If I remember right the bar where stonewall started was a mafia or mob run bar
It was, but they were far from allies. They muscled on their patrons as often as the cops did to drag more cash out of them, because they knew they had a blackmailable secret and they couldn’t go to the cops.
Thanks for explaining that context, I didn’t know much about the nature of those arrangements
Yeah, the mob is extremely patriarchal and very very misogynist and queerphobic. Has been for ages, the Italian mob is typically extremely traditionalist Catholic. So the fact that this guy put his hand on his son’s back and said, “Yeah, he dresses like a woman for fun, and he’s good at it. And if any of you make him miserable about it, they’ll never find your body.” is a massive shock.